So I had a look and it seems that even though many of us have been using the red Tuck tape (205-02) to seal air/vapour barriers it was never actually approved by the Canadian construction materials council CCMC. The red 205-02 and white 205-10 are only approved as sheathing tapes and are primarily used for sealing house wraps. the new Blue 219-08 tape is actually approved by the CCMC for use in sealing polyethylene air/vapour barriers . In the specs the differences I could find are the adhesion is better ( 66n/100mm vs.44n/100 mm) and the thickness is better (.103mm vs. .076 mm)in the blue over the red or white.
So there you have it, the blue is for sealing vapour barriers and the red or white for house wraps.We learn something new everyday I guess? Thanks for the great question, I have been meaning to check this out myself for a while but never had until now.

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Yeah I don't think the red tape is even 6 mil thick. At least not the red sheathing tape here in the US (we don't have the Tuck tape brand here).

They are saying red and white are 3.0mil and the blue is 4.1 mil. Honestly the water penetration rate and air permeance rate and moisture vapour transmission rate are the same between the two.The only differences are like I said the thickness and adhesion.
Is this brand (tuck) available below the border ? And do you have the different colours now? I only noticed the different colours this spring here.

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Nope, there's no Tuck here. The red sheathing tapes down here are various brands (IPG, Typar, Tyvek, Shurtape, 3M, etc.) and it's plain red plastic tape with no branding on the tape itself like the Tuck tape you've got up there, though some brands like Tyvek and Typar are white tape with their logo on it. But unlike Tuck tape up there I doubt there's any correlation between the the color of the tape and its properties (mil thickness, adhesion, etc).

In fact, for vapor barrier I have not even seen rolls of poly like you guys have up there. The poly I've seen is all folded and packed flat... you just grab a large pre-cut piece. It's in the same section of the store where all the tarps are sold. That's how it is in the big home improvement centers at least; it's very possible that a roll of the stuff would be available from a building supplier.

In fact before I watched your channel I figured that packing tape was sufficient to seal up a poly vapor barrier, the same tape you use to ship boxes. lol

Thanks for the info, Shannon. Like Aaron said, Tuck Tape isn't available in the US, and the similar tapes for sale don't seem to have comparable adhesion to red Tuck tape. I'd like to try the blue!

I was drawn to your sensible method of vapor barrier sealing with tape, acoustic and vapor boxes. No one down here has heard of vapor boxes or acousti-seal so they're not readily available. I'm searching online, but the Canadian retailers I've contacted (like Lowes CA) don't seem to want to send stuff down here.

Thanks for the info, Shannon. Like Aaron said, Tuck Tape isn't available in the US, and the similar tapes for sale don't seem to have comparable adhesion to red Tuck tape. I'd like to try the blue!

I was drawn to your sensible method of vapor barrier sealing with tape, acoustic and vapor boxes. No one down here has heard of vapor boxes or acousti-seal so they're not readily available. I'm searching online, but the Canadian retailers I've contacted (like Lowes CA) don't seem to want to send stuff down here.

I like your site and your videos!

Thanks for watching our videos ,and joining the forum.
Iberville and Lessco are two brands of the vapour boxes. Lessco is a U.S. company for sure but I think Iberville is canadian.

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Thanks for the info, Shannon. Like Aaron said, Tuck Tape isn't available in the US, and the similar tapes for sale don't seem to have comparable adhesion to red Tuck tape. I'd like to try the blue!

Are you sure red sheathing tape (by any brand in the US) isn't completely comparable to Tuck tape? I've never used Tuck tape so I'm not familiar with it. It looks like just red sheathing tape to me. It might be a little wider than the stuff I've seen here.

I was drawn to your sensible method of vapor barrier sealing with tape, acoustic and vapor boxes. No one down here has heard of vapor boxes or acousti-seal so they're not readily available. I'm searching online, but the Canadian retailers I've contacted (like Lowes CA) don't seem to want to send stuff down here.

Yeah I think our northern neighbors are a lot more savvy with insulation and vapor sealing, they seem to have better products in their market that are readily available.

Steel electrical boxes are more of the norm in Canada it seems. The US house construction industry is obsessed with cost reductions, so they use the cheapest materials available, and that is plastic electrical boxes.

There are plastic vapor boxes that are used on exterior walls, they look like these:

TNB_FN-354-V-orig.jpg (36.96 KiB) Viewed 8137 times

The entry points for NM cable have foam seal, and the flange around the box has a foam gasket where you'd apply acoustical sealant for the poly to stick to.

If you want to use steel electrical boxes instead, then you need the poly pockets. The only place in the US that I've found that has the Iberville poly pockets is Menards. You can order them online here:

So I had a look and it seems that even though many of us have been using the red Tuck tape (205-02) to seal air/vapour barriers it was never actually approved by the Canadian construction materials council CCMC. The red 205-02 and white 205-10 are only approved as sheathing tapes and are primarily used for sealing house wraps. the new Blue 219-08 tape is actually approved by the CCMC for use in sealing polyethylene air/vapour barriers . In the specs the differences I could find are the adhesion is better ( 66n/100mm vs.44n/100 mm) and the thickness is better (.103mm vs. .076 mm)in the blue over the red or white.
So there you have it, the blue is for sealing vapour barriers and the red or white for house wraps.We learn something new everyday I guess? Thanks for the great question, I have been meaning to check this out myself for a while but never had until now.

Interesting !

This same topic came up in an electrical forum I'm on. The guy said the inspector failed him for using the red tape on his outlet vapour barriers .... Came as a surprise to all of us

Wow, that is pretty persnickety. But good of the inspector, really, they SHOULD be.

Yes, they SHOULD be concerned about things that truly matter and a whole lot less concerned about following the code book to the letter without regard for real world conditions. In these parts, building regulation is far more about filling the municipality's coffers than safe construction techniques.

If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.

Wow, that is pretty persnickety. But good of the inspector, really, they SHOULD be.

Yes, they SHOULD be concerned about things that truly matter and a whole lot less concerned about following the code book to the letter without regard for real world conditions. In these parts, building regulation is far more about filling the municipality's coffers than safe construction techniques.

Aaron, I think you're totally right about our northern neighbors being more savvy about insulation and vapor barriers!
One of our local lumber yards has the plastic boxes with the front flange and the cable seals like you included in your post, but they're so darned pricey! So thanks for the tip about Menard's carrying the poly vapor boxes, I think I'll be ordering some soon.

Up here the nice single gang welded corner metal boxes are about 1.39 and a vapour box is around .40cents. The airtight plastic boxes like you pictured are about 4.49. So there is a huge difference up here between the two styles. I actually don't mind the airtight ones but the cost really makes them a factor on bigger jobs and I don't find it any quicker to deal with.

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Blue is for Interier ..red with the black logo is for exterior vapor barrier ...I came here trying to find out what the red with white logo is for lol ..the blue is new so maybe the red with white logo is the original interior because they had to change it to blue recently for code so maybe ppl were mixing the red with black logo and red with white logo up... the white logo and blue logo are a buck or 2 more than the exterior red tape with black logo

Yeah I'm surprised you guys up in the north country have different tapes for interior and exterior. I'd think any sheathing tape suited for exterior should be more than enough for the interior, so therefore it could be used in both places.

I know manufacturers sometimes create sort of "bogus" products to create the illusion that there's a different application just to increase their sales, and DIY'ers are often prey. We rely on, and trust, authorities to scrutinize new products before they incorporate them into official building code. So the rule of thumb is to rely on code and the advice of experienced builders--not be lured by some flashy new product you see at the store.

The blue tape is spaced at 4.5mil as the white and red tapes are 3mil the only difference i see. I have not seen red "tuck" tape with white writing? How about just make the best tape you can and sell one type? This is just one or two more things to have to have on hand.

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The blue tape is spaced at 4.5mil as the white and red tapes are 3mil the only difference i see. I have not seen red "tuck" tape with white writing? How about just make the best tape you can and sell one type? This is just one or two more things to have to have on hand.

That's just it... besides thickness the adhesive could be different I guess? But whatever is good for exterior should be more than enough for the interior. So just use that tape since it's all-purpose.

If an inspector would gig you on that (and I think I read on here they have), it would be interesting to try and hear their reasoning.

Inside where you need 6 mil poly, I would think you'd want to use the same thickness of tape? But I sure haven't seen 6 mil tape, that is very thick.